Posts by Grant Robertson at Download Squad

Grant Robertson
- http://grantrobertson.com

Grant Robertson is a born geek. Having worked in nearly every facet of the IT and software industry at one point or another, Grant has served as Lead Blogger for Download Squad since the departure of Jordan Running in February 2007. He has appeared on several NPR radio talk programs, been quoted in several national publications, and he still gets a tiny thrill every time he sees software he wrote in action.

Wanna write for Download Squad?

Posted May 8th 2008 8:00PM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Blogging

The few, the proud, the Download Squad. Think you have what it takes to join us in ~~world domination~~ covering software and the web? We're looking for a few great bloggers to add to our team.

We won't give you a corner office. We will not offer you a company car. Health care? Dude, you're better off hitting up Clinton or Obama. What we can offer you is a contract, the same pay as every other Weblogs, Inc blogger and a chance to be seen by an enormous number of readers.

How can you apply to be a Download Squad blogger? It's easy! Write three original sample posts in the style and voice of Download Squad (First person plural -- the royal "we") and under 400 words each. Pithy, witty and sarcastic a plus. (Tip: When we say original, we mean new. Don't send us previous posts from your own blog!) Send your samples to

Download Squad's alumni includes a formidable list of blogging talent, are you up to the challenge?

How sustainable are you?

Posted Apr 11th 2008 12:00PM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Video, Web services, Social Software

Make Me Sustainable from Download Squad on Vimeo.

You know you should go green, you want to make a difference but, how? It's not easy, few things worth doing are. Make Me Sustainable takes an interesting approach to the green problem by giving you a way to track your own impact, and the impact of your influence.

Christina caught up with the guys from Make Me Sustainable during South By Southwest, and they gave us a lot to think about, and a great preview of what you'll find at MakeMeSustainable.com

Talking OpenSocial with Google's Kevin Marks

Posted Mar 26th 2008 4:30PM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Developer, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Kevin Marks talks Open Social with Download Squad's Christina Warren from Download Squad on Vimeo.
With all the buzz around OpenSocial, it's easy to get lost in hype. While we were at SXSW we caught up with Kevin Marks, a man with more techno-credibility than you can shake a stick at. He's currently working on OpenSocial for Google, and he's got a lot to say about the concepts behind organizing and connecting the diaspora which is the current state of the social web. Our own Christina Warren cuts through the hype in this short interview.

Mzinga : What enterprise companies don't know about social media

Posted Mar 20th 2008 7:00AM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Web services, Social Software

SXSW 2008: Mzinga from Download Squad on Vimeo.

Enterprise companies fall into two camps; those who are competent in the social media space, and those who aren't. Mzinga aims to bring competency to enterprise social engagement. I caught up with Aaron Strout on Mzinga in the hallway at a rockin SXSW, and he gave us the low down on what enterprise users need to know now about managing their social face in the future.

Video : Ian Hogarth of Songkick

Posted Mar 19th 2008 6:00PM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Video, Web services, Social Software

SXSW 2008: Songkick from Download Squad on Vimeo.

What are you doing Friday night? Songkick is a new service which aims to put live music at the center of your evening plans. Through geolocation, analysis and some old-fashioned Web 2.0 style goodness, Songkick does its best to recommend shows worth seeing, highly relevant to you and within your area.

We talked with Ian Hogarth from Songkick while we were in Austin for SXSWi. He does a bang-up job of explaining why Songkick is a relevant service, approaching a problem in a unique way.

SXSWi Day Three

Posted Mar 10th 2008 10:00AM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Web services, web 2.0

Oh day three, where the point values are doubled and the hangover is permanent. If you decided to skip SXSWi this year, joining the hip kids who claimed it was "too commercial" and "too over-hyped", shame on you. The only thing too commercial were the panels and, frankly, no one goes to those anyway.

So far today we've caught up with the guys from Bloxes, which although not a tech product is remarkably cool in its simplicity. They're also the same guys behind the uber-cool Songza, which embodies the exact same dead-simple "Why didn't I think of that?" logic. Interlocking cardboard forms may not be terribly sexy from a software perspective but, who can argue with the ability to build 3d forms out of recycled content. Bloxes are the things you use to build cheap structures in the ultra-hip loft office space where you create the future of the web.

During the day we also had a great interview with Mindbites, which we'll have encoded and uploaded for your vicarious viewing pleasure, soon. Christina talked with Chris Saad, the founder of Dataportability.org, who is also working on a new version of his other great idea, Particls. I caught up with Saul Colt from Freshbooks, the web app that finally brought the sexyback to invoicing all your freelance clients.

We'd also like to take a minute to address a pressing social issue, Public Relations consultants. These hardworking mavens of the tech universe are largely underpaid, over worked, and almost never get glamorous perks like party invites, expensive bottles of wine and the adoration of beautiful women. You've probably asked yourself, as you lay awake at night, unable to sleep for worry over their living conditions and the status of their multi-million dollar contracts, "What can I do to help?" Fear not, there is a solution. For only hundreds of dollars a day, you can fill the tanks of their luxury cars with precious gasoline, and make the difference between the regular coffee Seattle's Best and a latte at Starbuck's.

The numbers:

Tweets about the Zuckerberg disaster: immeasurable given available tools
Sandwiches consumed in Bloghaus: 134
Times the guy in the press room breaks your concentration to ask, "Can I get you anything?": 17
Shirts we've acquired to give to our readers: 2
Approximate number of man-minutes Mark Zuckerberg and Sarah Lacy wasted with a useless interview: 112,500
Newly coined words overheard : 1 ("Radool", Gary Vaynerchuk)
Parties we skipped to bring you this content: 3 (well, 2.. we couldn't resist making an appearance at Gawker)
Times we've left messages for Mullenweg about an interview: 3
Times Mullenweg has left return messages with no schedule detail: 1

(Matt, we love you and we're only concerned that you're ok. Please, we're worried sick. We've called all the hospitals, homeless shelters and even the morgue. Where are you?)

SXSWi Day 2

Posted Mar 8th 2008 7:00PM by Grant Robertson

Is it Saturday already? Time is flying at SXSWi, and we're rolling with the punches After making the party scene last night till the wee hours, evangelizing the Download Squad to anyone who'd listen, and redefining the phrase, "overdid it", we were feeling a little blurry this morning.

We managed to miss the Expression Engine demo, although we hear it was fab.

We've been counting up the important stuff as the days progress. Here's our tally so far.

Number of times:

Accosted by a Sun rep on a Segway hawking passes to see a geriatric Smithereens: 5. Oh, wait, 6. No, 7. Gah!
bumped into Robert Scoble: 2
Called Matt Mullenweg about an interview with no response: 2
Seen the Download Squad ubercommenter, Ronin691: 2
Contemplated a liver transplant: 2
Business cards collected: one bazillion
Bugged by the overzealous volunteer in the press room: 5

Download Squad meetup at SXSW

Posted Mar 6th 2008 7:00PM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: News, Blogging, Time-Wasters

Are you in Austin for SXSW? Come meet a few of the people who make Download Squad tick. We'll be at Lovejoy's on Neches St, Saturday the 8th, from 4pm to 5:30. We'll even have a few things to give away.

Drop by, say hello and make yourself known. If you're lost, you can find me or Christina on Twitter and we'll try to help guide you in.

Download Squad at SXSW

Posted Mar 5th 2008 9:30AM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, News, Productivity, Social Software, web 2.0

Officially it's "five days of exciting panel content and amazing parties", unofficially it's the biggest event of the software geek calendar. SXSW Interactive starts Friday in Austin, Texas and we'll be hitting the ground tomorrow like some sort of invading army.

We've already managed to book plenty of interviews with tech luminaries, and we're sure to stumble across more. We'll also be doing some live blogging, taking lots of photos and video, and posting to Twitter.

Keep checking Download Squad for all the SXSW happenings, or if you're more of a river of news kind of person, we've got this SXSW 2008 RSS feed you can use to make sure you don't miss a thing.

Can the internet predict the Democratic nominee for President?

Posted Mar 3rd 2008 6:00AM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software

Presidential elections are tough. It's a long process fraught with uncertainty, pitfalls and heartbreak; just ask Ross Perot. In this last push towards the Democratic convention, and with a race that many are saying is too close to call, we figured it was perfect time to put some crowdsourcing to work and see how accurate it might be.

So, what do the Interwebs tell us about Tuesday's primary to end all primaries? Frankly, a lot. The first place we decided to hit on our prognostication panoply pursuit was prediction purveyor Intrade.

Continue reading Can the internet predict the Democratic nominee for President?

From FOWA : Liveblog - How to Grow a Community in The Future

Posted Feb 29th 2008 6:20PM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Blogging, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

It's all about the future at FOWA. Well, what do you expect? It's in the conference title. Gary Vaynerchuck of WineLibrary.tv, one of our favorite video podcasts, is giving a talk on "How to Grow a Community in The Future" and we're liveblogging it! Gary is a machine and a heck of a funny guy, so before Friday afternoon turns your brain to cobwebs, follow along with Gary's presentation.

From FOWA : Liveblog - The Application of New Features to an Established application

Posted Feb 29th 2008 5:25PM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Business, Developer, Web services, Yahoo!, Social Software, web 2.0

Everyone loves Flickr, right? Love Flickr or not, they have some sharp minds working hard to bring you a (mostly) rock solid web application. Adding features to an application with such an enormous userbase can be tricky. At Future of Web Apps 2008, Flickr's Cal Henderson is presenting on "The Application of New Features to an Established Application." Enjoy it live, or come back to it later.

From FOWA : Liveblog - The Future of APIs with Google's Kevin Marks

Posted Feb 29th 2008 4:40PM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Developer, Web services, Google, Social Software, web 2.0

As part of our continuing coverage from this huge day of presentations at Future of Web Apps 2008 in Miami, we're liveblogging Kevin Marks presentation on The Future of APIs.

From FOWA : Liveblogging, "Launch a Web App in 40 Minutes"

Posted Feb 29th 2008 2:12PM by Grant Robertson

Ever wondered how to build a web app in record time? We sure have. At Future of Web Apps 2008 today, Eric Schoenfeld of TechCrunch is leading a panel called, "Launch a Web App in 40 Minutes." Since we're here, we're curious, and the wifi at this event is rock solid, we're live blogging it, much to the chagrin of your index finger.

Lights dim.. here we go.

Continue reading From FOWA : Liveblogging, "Launch a Web App in 40 Minutes"

From FOWA : Leah Culver of Pownce, The Future of Web Services

Posted Feb 29th 2008 1:20PM by Grant Robertson
Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Web services, Social Software

Leah Culver founded Pownce with her friends Kevin Rose and Daniel Burka. Pownce is a "social messaging" service which allows you to share updates, files, links and more with your friends, and (now) provides a robust API to work with your data. Here are the rough cut of our notes from her presentation at FOWA 2008.

Continue reading From FOWA : Leah Culver of Pownce, The Future of Web Services

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#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Brad Linder	180	19
2	Simon Kerbel	25	3
3	Romeo Wahed	15	0
4	Todd Ritter	11	3
5	Kristin Shoemaker	11	12
6	Danny Mendez	9	6
7	Jason Clarke	8	6
8	Christina Warren	7	3
9	Ian Dumych	6	5
10	Jay Hathaway	4	0
11	Gordon Finlayson	3	0
12	Michael Schleifstein	2	0
13	Emily Price	2	1
14	Grant Robertson	2	2
15	Dolores Parker	2	1
16	Lisa Hoover	1	1
17	Nik Fletcher	1	0
18	Chris Ullrich	1	0
19	Peter White	1	0
20	Cory Bohon	1	0

XSEED inks Marvelous deal, Valhalla Knights II confirmed First Gears of War 2 gameplay video on Xbox Live tonight A dwarven explosion of Wrath of the Lich King info	Apple posts job listings for Munich Apple Store Super secret spy iPhone Yahoo! and Inquisitor seen sitting in tree
Photoshop Express gets Flickr support CallerComplaints: Track down telemarketers and umm... complain Googleholic for May 9, 2008	Spy shots: Fisker Karma makes an appearance in California MINI offers free driving lessons GM quits renting, buys headquarters for $626 million
How would you change RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8330? MWg releasing Windows Mobile 7 gear before the year's out? DARPA aims to create virtual environment for cyberwar simulations	Option Update: FedEx puts active into lower Q4 view on fuel costs Look for Boeing's shares to rise with the 787 Dreamliner Closing Bell: $126 Oil trumps deficit... week ends down

Wanna write for Download Squad?

How sustainable are you?

Talking OpenSocial with Google's Kevin Marks

Mzinga : What enterprise companies don't know about social media

Video : Ian Hogarth of Songkick

SXSWi Day Three

SXSWi Day 2

Download Squad meetup at SXSW

Download Squad at SXSW

Can the internet predict the Democratic nominee for President?

From FOWA : Liveblog - How to Grow a Community in The Future

From FOWA : Liveblog - The Application of New Features to an Established application

From FOWA : Liveblog - The Future of APIs with Google's Kevin Marks

From FOWA : Liveblogging, "Launch a Web App in 40 Minutes"

From FOWA : Leah Culver of Pownce, The Future of Web Services

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